Just a Little Help
by Lover's Angel
Summary: Red. That pool of blood made her understand exactly how wild she had let the two fighters become in this desperate situation. But as far as they had gone, she didn't know quite how to calm them back down. Oneshot.


The next chapter of Blizzard is on it´s way, I hope. This little ficlet was going to be a part of Oodles, but I just worked so hard on this that I couldn´t just hide it away in a collection. I´ve never worked with Koga before, so let´s be honest and tell me how I well I worked on his character.

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

Enjoy!

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The blood pounding in her ears and the rhythmic falling of her feet helped her focus enough through her watery eyes to spy a meadow, and without even checking to see if it was vacant or not, she threw herself between the bushes. It wouldn't take long for _him_ to find her, though maybe that time was just enough for her to find the right words to say when he did. But that was too much thinking for the moment; right now, she had to let out her grief and find a sliver of her pride. So she cried against a tree, praying to kami that the ground would just swallow her up, and she could forget the deceit that she had just endured.

She was out, alone, and utterly defenseless when he found her. The moonlight poured into the meadow, but did not reach her from where she sat under a tree. He couldn't see her face, even with his superior eyesight, but the bitter tang of salt in the air left no doubt to what she was doing there. The only real issue with that picture was that her shirt was not in the same way he remembered seeing it; instead it seemed to be inside-out.

Not wasting another thought, Koga rushed over to her, hearing her sniffles scant seconds before landing on his knees in front of her. His hands reach for her involuntarily, but hesitated at Inuyasha's scent permeating her in a more poignant way than usual.

"Kagome… What happened?" He waited for her to look up at him, and was taken aback by the hurt and betrayal staring back at him through her tears and puffy eyelids.

"Koga…" She looked down for a moment, seeming to think something over, and when her eyes took a hard glaze to them, she leaped at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.

It only took an instant for him to register that she was initiating this intimate contact before he wound his arms tightly around her waist, shushing gently into her ears. Her tears and sobs began again, this time more restrained, and Koga let her cry while he frantically pieced together the clues and her actions for what might have caused this.

Once she quieted down, he pried her gently off his shoulder, wincing slightly at how much a mess she looked compared to her usual, bubbly self. His fingers again took on a mind of their own and wiped the tears off her cheeks in a soft caress.

"What did Inuyasha do to you?" Koga's words escaped with a soft growl at his competition's name.

"None of your damn business, wolf. Now get your hands off Kagome, or I'll tear them off for you."

Both turned around to catch a silver-headed figure walk deftly out of the shadows behind them and approach cautiously, stopping when they both had a clear view of his person. Kagome flinched deeper into Koga's embrace as he glared back at Inuyasha.

"What the hell gives you the right to say that anymore, mutt? You obviously hurt her, and I warned you I would kill you if you did." The pair stood as Koga spoke, pushing Kagome behind him.

"I've already claimed her. Don't your nose work anymore, wolf? _That's_ what gives me the right to my bitch." Red leaked into Inuyasha's eyes, and for a second, his cheek stripes became visible.

A soft hand squeezed Koga's shoulder, and the owner stepped around him, allowing her hand to graze his arm as gravity pulled it down to her side again. "No, you didn't, Inuyasha. The second you chose to leave me back there, you chose her!"

Inuyasha recoiled a step during her rant, and turned his face away at her last words. Time froze then, and years could have passed until he spoke again, and it wasn't until he did that Kagome noticed how hard and labored his breaths were.

"I had to. I didn't want to leave you, Kagome, but I had to let her know that I am with you now, that there would be nothing between me and her anymore." Despite the harsh breathing interlacing his words, he turned to look at her, his eyes filled with pain and anguish, though a very small shred of hope swam along the amber depths.

Kagome shook her head, not liking how the fates were playing with her. "No… no… Don't lie to me, Inuyasha… I saw you kiss her!"

Shock hit the hanyou's face, and he lowered his head in shame, shielding his face from her accusatory gaze. Koga realized this dent in Inuyasha's demeanor and decided to help Kagome. Even if in doing so, he knew he risked more than his pride.

"You heard her, dog-breath. She doesn't want you anymore. You made your choice, and as I told her long ago, I chose her," he gently reached out for her hand, and when she took it, he guided her gently onto his back, "Let's go, Kagome. I'll show how a real demon proves his love."

They had barely gone five readying steps, when Inuyasha was there, directly in their path. "You're not going anywhere. Kagome belongs to me. If you're going to take her away from me, it'll be over my rotting corpse!" He pulled out tetsusaiga and allowed it to transform menacingly, preventing what little desire Koga had of taking a bitch away from her mate.

Though he often seemed a little more thickheaded in front of Kagome than normal, Koga wasn't dense. When he first saw Kagome and took her away, he understood the way Inuyasha's scent clung to her clothes and skin. He never fully intended to mate the young girl if the mutt obviously claimed her as he did. Stoking the idiot's temper enough to realize what he was missing was his true goal; though just pissing the dog off brought its own joy.

"Sure, mutt. You wanna fight for her, I'll kill you and then take her where she will always be treated with respect." He let Kagome slide down carefully from his arms, taking care to stroke her thighs as she came down, and feeling satisfaction in the way Inuyasha's eyes widened at the sight.

"Koga… you can't…" Kagome leaned closer to him to whisper her fright into his ear.

"Go wait for me by the tree, Kagome. This won't take long." And just to see how pissed off the mutt would get, Koga placed a gentle kiss on her cheek, never taking his eyes of off his opponent.

This time, she seemed to understand the real meaning of this fight, and walked briskly out of way, but the light in her eyes when she turned around allowed both men to see that she wouldn't permit one to kill the other.

"No sword, mutt. If we're gonna fight this out, it has to be even." At this point, the only one with a true intention to kill was Inuyasha, and just to have some chance of surviving, Koga knew evening the odds wouldn't hurt.

He sheathed the gigantic fang slowly, and cracked his knuckles as he spoke, "That's fine with me, wolf. I don't need tetsusaiga to tear you limb from limb."

"I seriously doubt that."

Koga jumped over Inuyasha, and within a split second, had pounded out a seriously large ditch where the hanyou had stood a second earlier. Confused, he looked around for a glimpse of his enemy, only to have a fist collide with the side of his face and send him flying into a tree on the edge of the clearing.

The wood couldn't take the brunt force well and tore in half where Koga's chest landed. He pulled himself up, and passed his hand over his mouth, feeling the wetness there. It came back red with his trickling blood, and he looked up at Inuyasha, mere feet away from him now.

"Nice one. But that will be that last blow you land on me!" He pushed off the tree with his feet and with quick maneuvering, connected his right foot on Inuyasha's chest.

He fell to the ground with a harsh groan while he skid, taking all the rocks he landed on with him. Shaking off the rocks that dug into his skin, he got up and jumped at Koga, claws shining in the moonlight.

Koga dodged as his opponent had done before, and kicked him repeatedly in the side when he landed. A gasp behind him caught his attention momentarily, and remembering himself, he jumped back, his fists tight at his sides.

Looking up when the hits ended, Inuyasha saw the distance between himself and Koga, wondering at the tight demeanor, and lack of attack. "What the hell? Did you lose your nerve, wolf?"

"Shut up! I'm making sure this fight lasts longer, that's all. Kagome wouldn't be happy if I killed you so quickly."

Inuyasha jumped up, mumbling under his breath, "Pompous asshole…" His side ached when he breathed in, and pain from when he touched the area told him he had some broken ribs. "I'll make sure you eat those words!"

He launched himself again, but this time changed course at the last second, landing a blow on the unsuspecting Koga, and swiping down his torso, shredding through the leather armor, and releasing a spurt of blood.

A strange feeling overcame Inuyasha, as he had never made his romantic rival bleed before, and even though he knew how wrong it was to take the fight this far, his inner demon relished the sight of the pouring blood; some of the same color leeched into his visage. Seeing the red come out so quickly sickened Kouga before he felt the pain, and he jumped away instinctively before the claws could dig any deeper.

His hands rose to put pressure on the wound, and while Kouga bent his head to survey the damage, he found himself forced on the ground with an angry demon growling in his ear. Gasping with surprise, he noticed too late the horrifying color Inuyasha´s eyes had changed to or the way his opponent´s claws were held near his gut; and the surprise changed to pain as more of his blood supply suffocated the soft green of the grass around him.

Red. That pool of blood made her understand exactly how wild she had let the two fighters become in this desperate situation. But as far as they had gone, she didn't know quite how to calm them back down.

"No, Inuyasha! You've done enough to him!" The tears in her eyes repressed any anger she would voiced otherwise; Kagome knew she was begging.

Whether it was the tears, pleading, or a combination of the two, it worked, and Inuyasha backed off Koga's cringing, bloody frame to step up next to her.

"I chose you, my mate," he rasped, the scarlet slowly fading from his eyes. "I will have no other."

His words made her realize that even though he still had his full-demon appearance, he still responded normally to her. The persuasion he was trying now confirmed the recognition on some level. And maybe he would respond to her argument now.

"Killing Koga won't make me choose to stay with you. You have to prove to me that we belong to each other and _no one_ else." Bitter tears fell steadily down her face, and though she kept her eyes on Inuyasha, periphery showed Koga slowly stand and back away.

Although the movement was silent to her, Inuyasha growled at knowing Koga was moving around behind him, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Leaving. You defeated me, and by the look of things, Kagome doesn't need me to tell you how much of an idiot you are. But mark my words, asshole, if you make her cry again, I'll make sure you never see her again." All previous joking Koga would typically have in his voice was gone when he spoke, and Kagome was sure that his words held no room for doubt.

"I will protect what is mine."

Koga disappeared into the forest at his words, his smile effectively hidden from the couple by the moon's shadows.

By this point, Kagome resisted the instinct to wrap her arms around her mate, and held herself rigid when he buried his nose at the connection of her neck and shoulder, and licked his mark tenderly. When she didn't relax, he growled threateningly.

"I'm still mad at you for what you did. I still can't believe you left me when we were… about to do _that_… to go talk to Kikyo," her fingertips tempted his chin to look in her eyes, and he found the hurt still mixed in her chocolate depths.

"I swear… Kagome that was the last time I will ever leave you for her again. _You_ are important to me, not her." Sincerity rang from his vocal chords with the words.

But the doubt held strong in the back of her mind. "How are you going to prove that to me?"

Inuyasha's golden eyes softened, warming to the point that Kagome could feel her legs tremble beneath her. His breath fanned out over her cheekbones at his proximity, and his arms tightened around her waist, preventing what little thoughts she had of leaving. Then his lips met her in a passionate kiss that left her breathless. Everything was there, the relief at her well-being, the happiness of her presence, the desperation at her misunderstanding, and the love _for_ her. And as corny as she knew it would sound otherwise, Kagome knew he meant it.

When they parted and gasped for air is when they found themselves on the cool grass, though Inuyasha didn't quite recall having his own legs give out during the kiss.

"Okay," she gasped, her voice a little more high pitched than normal, "I think I believe you now." The ebony of her hair blanketed around the ground as she lay back on the grass. Moonlight brought her features to high relief and Inuyasha leaned down over her to tenderly kiss her lips again before turning to her neck.

"Good, because I don't ever want you to doubt me again. I think I'm pretty trustworthy."

She looked straight into his eyes, and could see the slight hesitation there, before she answered as earnestly as possible, "I trust you with my life."

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If you feel this story is possibly missing a little citrus, then you´re right. I have a plan to add lemony content as an alternate ending in my mediaminer account, under the same name. It´s not up yet, but I hope to get it up within the week.

Otherwise, tell me what you think, and leave me a nice review. Thanks for reading!


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